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10 Secrets to Finding Your Ancestors’ Maiden Names

July 26, 20172 comments

One of the most challenging stumbling blocks to genealogy research is tracing female lines. The tradition of women taking their husbands’ surnames means that a woman loses that link to her family line when she gets married.

In the past, female ancestral lines meant little because women held little importance. The male line was all that mattered for inheritance purposes and for carrying on the family surname.

Historically, women became extensions of their husbands. Even in this day and age, many newspapers label wedding pictures as “Mr. and Mrs. John Martin” rather than “John and Marie Martin.”

They also list surviving women in obituaries as “Mrs. John Martin.” Up until fairly recently, any newspaper article mentioning a married woman would generally refer to her as Mrs. with her husband’s name.

Almost everyone researching genealogy today realizes the importance of researching female lines, but we run into snags because of that pesky maiden name problem.

First and Middle Names of Descendants

Past generations actually did honor the female line by often giving a child the mother’s maiden name as a middle name. It might be the firstborn son, the firstborn child of either sex or any child born to the marriage.

Sometimes, the child ends up being called by his or her middle name, which was the maiden name of his or her mother or another female antecedent. For example, my ancestor Samuel McKee Stiteler went by McKee (his middle name). The name McKee was the maiden name of one of his female antecedents.

People Who Live Close By In Census Records

Search US Federal Census records and look for the last names of people who live nearby. Then, conduct searches with the first name of your ancestor and the last names of folks on the same page as her census record.

Obituaries

Online obituary collections can help you locate that missing maiden name. The maiden name might be listed right there, or the obituary might list the woman’s surviving brothers.

Don’t just look at the woman’s obituary, though. The obituaries of her husband and children might also list her maiden name.

In newspapers, books or other publications, if a woman’s unmarried surname was Davis, a write-up might mention her as “the former Madeline Davis” or “Madeline Straw nee Davis” or “Madeline (Davis) Straw.”

Family Members in Census Records

Unfortunately, prior to 1850, only the head of household is listed in U.S. Census records. That would be the husband if he was still alive.

Death Certificates

I’ve found a number of women’s maiden names from the death certificates of their offspring. Many states’ death certificates include lines for both the father’s name and the mother’s maiden name.

Marriage Records

If you can locate your female ancestor’s marriage certificate, you’ll likely find her maiden name. This also might be included in marriage listings kept in books or binders by governments and churches.

Old Books

Old genealogy and history books can include references to your female relatives’ maiden names. You can access a large selection of such books free through Google Books.

You might also find some by searching Google, or look for the physical paper books at your local library. Libraries sometimes can find books for you at other libraries through inter-library loan programs.

In addition, Ancestry.com maintains a very large repository of old historical and genealogy books.

Search Without a Last Name

Conducting a genealogy online search with just the woman’s first name, geographic area and year of birth works best for women with uncommon first names.

I’m guessing that if I searched for women named Petunia in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, who were born in 1846, the list would be short.

You can also try this with more common first names just to see what happens. You might get lucky and find that there was only one woman with that first name born in a particular year in the area of your ancestor’s birth.